The Engineer Q&A: Hydrogen-powered vehicles

How are engineers working to remove the obstacles for one of the most promising technologies for the next generation of mass and personal transport? We’d like your questions for the people who are developing the elements for hydrogen-powered vehicles.

GM’s fuel cell development power unit

We’ve put together a panel from the hydrogen vehicle community, including vehicle developers, fuel cell specialists, hydrogen storage developers and the industrial gas sector to answer your questions on how this long-standing and promising technology might be deployed in electric vehicles in the coming decades.

Fuel cells, which combine hydrogen and oxygen to produce electricity, are not a new technology; they date back almost two centuries, with the first discoveries in the field back in the late 1830s. Their first commercial use was over a century later, providing electrical power for NASA’s space probes, including the command and service modules of the Apollo Missions. Fuel cells are used by many organisations as part of their back-up power systems; some have even been integrated with solar cells and other renewable electricity generation systems to provide the current to make the hydrogen by electrolysing water.

More recently, fuel cells have been seen as one of the most promising technologies for electric cars, as they would fit into an infrastructure similar to that used by internal combustion engine vehicles: hydrogen would be sold at fuel stations where drivers could quickly fill up a storage tank via a pump from a large reservoir. Several large automotive companies, including Nissan, GM, BMW, Toyota and Mercedes-Benz, have produced demonstration fuel cell-powered vehicles, and around 100 fuel cell buses operate around the world. Over this summer, a small fleet of hydrogen-powered taxis operated in London.

The Riversimple concept fuel cell powered city car

But there are still many problems which need to be overcome for a larger deployment of hydrogen-powered vehicles. How can flammable, explosive hydrogen be transported and stored safely, both at fuel stations and in vehicles? How can the cost of fuel cells be reduced so that vehicles are within the budgets of every driver; and how can their performance be improved so that they deliver the power necessary for operation in all weather conditions? How much hydrogen would be needed to meet demand, and how should this be produced?

Is anyone seriously developing offshore hydrogen farms, using windmills to electrolyse sea water and store the hydrogen on a barge, then to be towed or pumped ashore? The oxygen produced as the other by-product would also need to be harvested or would it simply be released into the air?

why is there so little being done on getting hydrogen from water, on board. much safer than in a tank. there is much said about what if, on the explosion side but also with a leak. people should run away from the drastic freezing effect followed by fire /explosion. on board water, much less risk & money

Answer: an early stage California company, Integrated Power Technology Corporation has patented mobile structures that store offshore aero-hydrokinetic energy as hydrogen or ammonia, based on seawater electrolysis or solid state ammonia synthesis, respectively. Conservative models indicate that at today’s ammonia spot price, the operating margin for such a vessel is better than 50% when operating in the North Atlantic or South Pacific “Roaring Forties”, and good margins from operating in these regions and providing hydrogen wholesale at less than $3USD/kg (gallon of gasoline equivalent, carbon free). Why these break-through margins? Because turbine power output is cubically proportional to motive fluid velocity, and over deep water is where the greatest wind flows. For instance, 9m/s yields twice the power of 7m/s, thus paying for roundtrip storage. Eliminating cabling, foundations, permitting and other regulatory costs pays for the “barges” themselves.

Surely, if a Hydrogen distribution infrastructure is developed for fuel cell vehicles it will be hijacked by the internal combustion engine market which will be able to provide much cheaper vehicles which are equally green.

Ballard Power Systems was once regarded as the global leader in the hydrogen fuel cell field – but fell from the sky back to dust. Which companies are serious contenders to lead the development of this industry in the next 5 years?

The US military have trialled some equipment that can apparentely make synthetic jet fuel from sea water using electricity and electrolysis.

The aim is to be able to produce jet fuel without having to be re-fueled at sea or come back into port.

The fuel is very similar to kerosene or diesel, probably uses huge amounts of electricity but this would not be a problem in area with plenty of sun, hydroelectric or access to a nuclear reactor I.e. air craft carrier.

My point being that the fuel is way more safe than hydrogen to store, transport and use.

IF fuel cells can be made (1)affordable, and (2) sufficient hydrogen storage can be had to give the vehicle a range of >200 miles when running on fuel cell – electric, wouldn’t the incorporation of hydraulic drive increase the range by allowing less loading of the fuel cells during acceleration/deceleration?